do.MORE – Our Sustainability Strategy

To be a sustainable fashion platform with a net-positive impact for people and the planet

Zalando vision is to be a sustainable fashion platform with a net-positive impact for people and the planet. Zalando announced its ambition last year, by committing to setting a Science-Based Target (SBTs) in 2020.

SBTs are a set of goals developed by companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid drastic consequences ranging from extreme weather patterns to severe natural catastrophes. They are defined as science-based if they are in line with the scale of reductions required to limit global warming to 2°C and pursue efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels.

Zalando is the first platform worldwide to set SBTs. This puts Zalando in a leadership position and adds credibility to the overall sustainability strategy and puts us on a 1.5°C path, aligned with science. To achieve this, by 2025, Zalando will reduce its operational carbon emissions by 80 percent and carbon emissions coming from the production of private label products by 40 percent relatively. Improving the business is one part of this journey, but we also see Zalando’s role to reach further, right across the value chain.

It has become ever clearer that the world is facing huge challenges. Every government, organisation and individual needs to act fast to support our society in overcoming them. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported in 2018 that we have only 12 more years to limit climate change. We need to stop consuming the earth’s resources at an unsustainable rate. We further have to tackle the problem of child labor, human rights and unsafe working conditions in global supply chains. By 2023, we have continuously increased our ethical standards and only work with partners who are in line with them (Code of Conduct (opens new window)). Fashion and e-commerce, including our own business, have contributed to these problems. But we at Zalando have a unique opportunity and responsibility to be part of the solution. So we’re ramping up our efforts to create bigger and more impactful change fast.

From now on, we pledge to do.MORE.

To read more information about our Sustainability Strategy please visit our corporate website (opens new window).